Dan's piece is very nice and useful, especially in terms of such things as going out to dinner with either old friends or new ones, rather than waiting for a possible meeting with higher status folks. If you are the type of person who actually goes to hear the "papers," it might be useful to talk to some panelists afterwards, asking questions, etc. You might get blown off, or you might get someone having an enjoyable coffee with you.
However, it might be further useful to point out that it is mainly relevant to ASA in parts (how to deliver a paper, how to organize your day, etc. are good anywhere). But, I have been in the profession 30 years, and after 11 books and over 100 articles and chapters, I myself am considered a bit of a status person to some junior faculty at small schools and community colleges. It is worth knowing that I still feel alienated at ASA, as do many of the other heavily published people I know.
My strongest recommendation for people who worry about this is to go to smaller meetings. The regionals welcome with open arms people alienated by the larger meetings, as do the specialty groups, a great many of which meet simultaneously with or overlapping with ASA (SSSP, SSSI, SSR). If you have to go only to ASA, join two or three of the unbelievable number of sections and become active. You will meet people there that you will later recognize at receptions and in hallways (some of whom are high status). There are wonderful specialty meetings every year (I go to the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and both are of a size where after presenting papers for 10 straight years there were literally hundreds of people who knew who I was). Groups like the Association for Humanist Sociology are so small and welcoming that you are guaranteed a polite reception to your paper and a welcome to be part of the in-group. Like an auction, be careful of nodding your head, or you may find yourself on next year's program committee, or editing the quarterly newsletter. After two years, I was made Program Chair! It is important to mention that I met my oldest and best friends in the academic world during those first two years at AHS.
But Dan's advice is still good. Even at the Division on Women on Crime of the American Society of Criminology (two steps down in smallness), there have been complaints of the sort he talks about: no one reached out to welcome me, it looked like an old reunion. Unlike the usual arrogant old men, these people redoubled their efforts to welcome young scholars, but the point remains that it is symptomatic of the nature of conventions, which I assume is Dan Ryan's main point.
Marty Schwartz
--On Tuesday, August 08, 2006 1:45 PM -0700 Dan Ryan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://courses.mills.edu/courses/public/danryan/papers/Ryan-How-to-Enjoy-a-Convention.PDF
Martin D. Schwartz
Professor of Sociology
Ohio University
119 Bentley Annex
Athens, OH 45701
740.593.1366 (voice)
740.593.1365 (fax)
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